Conventional computing systems crash when they encounter uncorrectable/unrecoverable data errors (UEs). The impact to the owner of the system can range from minor nuisance to severe monetary business losses. Accordingly, a system owner is adversely affected by such system crashes and becomes very dissatisfied by these UEs. Methods to avoid such crashes have both tangible and intangible benefits.
On a conventional multiprocessing computing system platform which includes a service processor, an error classification and processing model is provided whereby the hardware within the central electronic complex notifies a service processor (SP) of conditions requiring processing. An attention signal is provided that informs the SP that such a condition has occurred. The hardware has functions that capture and inform the SP of the type of condition that has occurred. In the conventional system there are three (3) possible hardware detected error types:                1. Recovered Error Attention (REA): A hardware detected error condition which hardware itself recovered from.        2. Special Attention (SA): A hardware detected condition (not necessarily an error) that requires specific unique SP processing actions.        3. Checkstop Attention (CSA): A hardware detected error condition for which the hardware caused the system to cease operating (i.e., system crashes).        
In this model a given fault or attention condition was designed to be detected and reported from one and only one logical fault source point. A UE in this model was reported as a CSA thereby causing the system hardware to crash immediately. Accordingly, it is desirable to find ways to keep systems functioning as well as possible when UE conditions are encountered. It is also desirable to provide correct fault isolation in a computer system that continues to function while such systems pass the “data with error” through multiple system components on the way to their data destination with various repercussions at each observation point. The present invention addresses such a need.